• I am a liberal Tory, said prime minister Dave and there will evidently be no backsliding from the leftish tendencies that are already driving Lord Tebbit and the Telegraph right crazy. Witness home secretary Theresa May, criticised last week for her mixed record of voting on gay and lesbian issues. She arrives to a bulging in-try no doubt, but still her first action in this her first full week was a statement in support of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. In the land of Cleggaron, they all learn fast.

• So, thank you and goodbye was the message from Andrew Feldman, the chief executive at Conservative central office on Monday as he informed the worker bees that many of them will now be made redundant. But that wasn't all he said. He also told them that despite the axe, made necessary by financial restrictions and because some of the apparatchiks must now be Liberal Democrats, the Tories are nevertheless retaining "the biggest amount of peace-time troops ever". Why so? Does he think another election is in the offing?

• One never knows, and similar uncertainty cursed proceedings at the high court yesterday. Unite the union was seeking leave to appeal against the ruling on Monday that rendered its strike plans illegal. Its problem was finding a judge not booked on any forthcoming BA flight, who could therefore sit without any perception of possible bias. Judges are above reproach at all times, as we know. But pity Mrs Justice Cox, who ruled in BA's favour in December and then faced false Fleet Street suspicions that she sided with Willie Walsh because she didn't want her own holiday ruined. At least one paper deployed reporters to trace her. Alas for them, she never left the ground. She enjoyed her Christmas break in Wales.

• The next Labour leader will not be Jon Cruddas, he says, and one does hope the bookies will take note. Yesterday Paddy Power was offering 50-1 for John McFall (not even an MP – he stood down at the last election) and 66-1 for Jack Straw (emphatically ruled himself out last week). So the Milibands have their noses in front and those who know David will testify to his sharp agile mind. If he doesn't have the information he needs, he knows where to get it. On being appointed environment secretary in 2006, some noted his lack of experience in the field, but one of his most trusted aides hit the ground running. Out went an email to a hand- picked collection of experts. "Does anyone know anything about badgers?"

• Yes, it was an interesting time but some have better memories of it than others. Ken Livingstone, would-be London mayor and once again a coming man in Labour circles, is backing Ed Balls, or Ed Miliband in preference to brother David. And one wonders the extent to which he is influenced by a meeting they had when Ken, then mayor of London, was trying to persuade David Miliband to give him control of waste services in the capital so he could stop the authorities building more air-polluting incinerators. Hands off, said Miliband, siding with his officials. "You're killing my fucking children," screamed an agitated Ken.

• Finally, extraordinary shenanigans in Sheffield; Nick Clegg's heartland. Many toxic elements: claim and counter claim, personal enmities, accusations of ballot rigging. One would summon the police to sort it all out. But the police are in it up to their necks. Startling it was to hear the story that unfolded in Sheffield county court as PC Tom Goodhill attempted to prove that he was the victim of ballot rigging in a Police Federation election in 2005. His case, which seemed to be accepted in great measure by a former deputy chief constable of South Yorkshire setting out the position to Nick Clegg, was that he received 14 votes. The official result accorded him just nine. PC Goodhill lost his legal challenge, with the judgment handed down last week. But there are no winners here, because the conclusion of the judge was that five of the police officers who said they voted for PC Goodhill probably took to the witness box, on oath, and lied. "This is a sad and disturbing story of police dishonesty," said Goodhill afterwards. Poor man. Can't even dial 999.